In 1985, the wreck was finally located by a joint French–American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER and Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Numerous expeditions unsuccessfully tried using sonar to map the sea bed in the hope of finding the wreckage.
The Titanic sank in 1912, when she collided with an iceberg during her maiden voyage. The bodies of the passengers and crew would have also been distributed across the sea bed, but have since been consumed by other organisms.
A debris field around the wreck contains hundreds of thousands of items spilled from the ship as she sank. In contrast, the stern is completely ruined. The bow is still recognisable with many preserved interiors, despite deterioration and damage sustained hitting the sea floor. It lies in two main pieces about 2,000 feet (600 m) apart. The wreck of the Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet (3,800 metres 2,100 fathoms), about 370 nautical miles (690 kilometres) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland.
